As those of you who have stayed know, we have a flock of hens that lay the most tasty, colorful, eggs.  Part of afternoon chores is stopping by the henhouse and collecting the eggs.  On Friday, however, I had a bit of a surprise when I opened up the nestboxes:

Apparently this guy figured out how to meander into the henhouse and take a nice little nap.  Probably after he helped himself to an egg or two for lunch.

Some animals, like raccoons or foxes, are problematic – they tend to wreak havoc on the chickens, and we do not look kindly on their intrusion.  Opossums, however, are more relaxed opportunist omnivores.  They will eat an egg or two, but they won’t kill the hens.  They also eat a lot of insects and ticks, so we’re generally much kinder.  I didn’t have my protective gloves with me, but fortunately my co-farmer John was able to meander over and extract him without danger.

He was pretty sleepy and didn’t put up a fight at all.

John put him in our woodpile, and he scurried underneath and is probably chilling out quite nicely.  If he shows up again we may have to implement sterner measures, but for now, live and let live.